WODEHOUSE, P.G. Manuscript notes for A Pelican at Blandings.

‘I May Be an Ass, but I Am Not a Silly Ass’

WODEHOUSE, P.G. Manuscript notes for A Pelican at Blandings. [Remsenburg. December 1966–March 1968].

[with:]

WODEHOUSE, P.G. Nine typed and autograph letters signed, with a carbon copy of a letter from James B. Meriwether to Wodehouse. Remsenburg. 9 November 1952–27 October 1965.

4to. Unbound, in a custom cream cloth chemise with ribbon pull in a quarter tan morocco slipcase with cream cloth sides, spine lettered in gilt; ff. 104 (90 of which 280 x 215 mm and 14 of which 300 x 230 mm), written chiefly to rectos in red, blue, and black ink, one leaf (3 January 1968) partially typed and one blank, most leaves dated; mild toning, creasing, and edgewear, occasional residual paperclip rust and impressions, several leaves punctured to upper left corner from previous binding, but overall clean and well preserved; offered with nine original letters from Wodehouse, six to James Meriwether, one to Margaret Meriwether, two to Wodehouse collector Marshall Bean, and a carbon copy of a letter from James Meriwether (see below).

A remarkable batch of Wodehouse’s manuscript notes for A Pelican at Blandings, the tenth Blandings novel; offered with nine original Wodehouse letters.

A Pelican at Blandings, the tenth Blandings Castle novel, was published when Wodehouse was eighty-eight years old, by Barrie and Jenkins in London (September 1969) and in the US by Simon & Schuster (February 1970). This substantial cache of manuscript notes for the novel is laid out in Wodehouse’s characteristic hand-ruled compartments, recording the author’s developing ideas for characters, scenes, and plotlines, with later marginal notes and gradings (‘good’ and, less frequently, ‘v. good’). The notes (the first leaf, dated ‘Dec 6 – 1966’, headed ‘Blandings Novel’), often beginning with the characteristic exhortation to ‘Try this’, teem with the author’s seemingly undiminished joy in invention.

The manuscript is accompanied ten items of correspondence (9 original, one carbon copy) comprising the following:

1. WODEHOUSE, P.G. Typed letter signed to Margaret W. Meriwether, 1000 Park Avenue. New York. 9 November 1952.

2. WODEHOUSE, P.G. Typed letter signed to James B. Meriwether, with typed envelope. Remsenburg. 7 May 1960.

3. WODEHOUSE, P.G. Typed letter signed to James B. Meriwether, with typed envelope. Remsenburg. 9 June 1960.

4. WODEHOUSE, P.G. Typed letter signed to James B. Meriwether. Remsenburg. 11 July 1960.

5. WODEHOUSE, P.G. Typed letter signed to James B. Meriwether, with typed envelope and autograph redirection address. Remsenburg. 9 August 1960.

6. WODEHOUSE, P.G. Typed letter signed to James B. Meriwether. Remsenburg. 11 April 1961.

7. WODEHOUSE, P.G. Autograph letter signed to Marshall Bean. Remsenburg. 15 November 1964.

With a signed autograph note dated 15 November 1964, a quotation from ‘a short story which I have just written’, instead of ‘a [requested] sketch’, mentioned in the ALS. The unidentified quotation, beginning ‘The cross every motion picture magnate has to bear is that everyone he meets acts at him in the hope of getting on the pay roll’ may be based upon material related to the novel Frozen Assets, published earlier the same year and featuring a motion picture magnate.

The following three letters tell a short, pleasingly Wodehousian, story:

8. WODEHOUSE, P.G. Autograph letter signed to Marshall Bean. Remsenburg. 3 May 1965.

In this letter, Wodehouse expresses sympathy for Mr Bean’s poor health, happily agreeing to send a signed photograph, as well as the manuscript of a recent short story.

9. MERIWETHER, James B. Carbon copy of typed letter to P.G. Wodehouse. 14 October 1965.

In the letter, Meriwether explains that he has returned a copy of a Kenneth Grahame volume, bought at auction along with a number of signed Wodehouse volumes. Meriwether explains:

‘[I] purchased last spring form the excellent American dealer Robert Black a substantial portion of a genuine Wodehouse typescript, to wit: about the first third of The Brinksmanship of Galahad. Pretty pleased I was, for it is a lovely MS., besmeared with the Wodehouse sweat hot from the Wodehouse brow […], liberally revised and amended by the Wodehouse pencil, and all just the thing to gladden the heart of one of your confirmed admirers. With the typescript, however, were several letters and an inscribed photograph, all making it pretty clear that you had given the lot to one of our other admirers, who had then cashed in, with the help of Mr. Black. So, although I was happy to see the picture of you looking authorial (I note with some unesse [sic], that the cat you are holding looks even more critical) and considered keeping it, I decided that the letters and photograph should return to you to dispose of as you saw fit. They are enclosed here – burn them or make coals of fire of them.’

10. WODEHOUSE, P.G. Typed letter signed to James B. Meriwether. Remsenburg. 27 October 1965.

The author replies:

Dear Mr Meriwether.

The Kenneth Grahame book arrived safely. Many thanks. I am very glad to have it, as I imagine it is impossible to buy now. I must have bought this copy at least seventy years ago!

The history of those two photographs and the MS is as follows. This blighter Marshall Bean wrote me a pathetic letter saying that he was dying of cancer and that the only thing that could comfort him would be a bit of manuscript and a photograph of me. Naturally I couldn’t refuse a man in such straits, and I still don’t know if he is dying of cancer, but the fact that he has sold the loot makes me very doubtful, especially as he wrote again, this time asking if I would sign my name at the bottom of a blank sheet of paper and send it to him! Well, as the fellow said in the play, I may be an ass, but I am not a silly ass. This time I ignored him, so he will not be able to write ‘Pay Marshall Bean ten thousand dollars’ over my signature. What I feel the world needs is fewer and better Marshall Beans.

Congratulations on being back home. You must be pleased.

Yours sincerely

P.G. Wodehouse.

Provenance: from the estate of the noted William Faulkner scholar and Wodehouse collector, Professor James B Meriwether, who latterly held the McClintock Chair in Southern Letters at the University of South Carolina; Hermitage Auctions, 13 September 2018.

SKU: 2126349